Warning! This article contains major spoilers for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice!A major source of tension between Lydia and Astrid dates surrounds the fate of Richard, their respective husband and father, who died earlier Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel brings Winona Ryder’s Lydia to a very different place in life than when she was last seen in BeetlejuiceIt’s the end. when she comes back Lydia is revealed to be a widow raising her teenage daughter Astrid (Jena Ortega).Who doubts her mother’s psychic talent and criticizes her for sending her to boarding school and refusing to talk about her father, Richard.
Lydia also reveals that her marriage to Richard ended a few years before he died, but it is unclear whether Astrid’s parents were officially divorced before his tragic death. After much discussion about Astrid’s father and Lydia’s inability to see his ghost, Richard finally joins Beetlejuice 2s cast of characters once Astrid goes to the afterlife. As it turns out, his ghost is working in the immigration office of the netherworld, with Richard’s grim appearance and fate give more context to what really happened to him when he died In Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Sequel.
Astrid’s father died in a boating accident in Brazil before Beetlejuice 2
Richard died while fighting for climate justice in South America
Astrid confirms that her father died in a boating accident not long before Charles Deetz’s death kicks off Beetlejuice 2s history. At the time of his death, Richard was in Brazil fighting for climate justice when tragedy struck the boat he was onWith the power not being able to find his body. The appearance of Richard’s ghost in the afterlife reveals that he was swallowed by the river and essentially became fish food, with a few small fish still clinging to his dead body when he reunites with Astrid and Lydia in the netherworld.
While Lydia and Astrid haven’t been able to see Richard’s ghost since he died, he reveals that he still checks in on them often.
Jenna Ortega’s character often notes how Richard was a “Free spirit“And is always fighting for noble causes around the world, and it seems that his journey and Lydia’s focus on her New York-based Ghost house show culminated in their split. Since his death, it appears Richard was assigned to work in the immigration office of the afterlifeStamping passports for ghosts to go back to earth or onto the great beyond. However, while Lydia and Astrid have not been able to see Richard’s ghost since he died, he reveals that he still checks in on them often.
Richard is portrayed by Santiago Cabrera in Beetlejuice 2.
Why Lydia and Astrid could not see Richard’s ghost until he went to the afterlife
Richard’s spirit was in the afterlife, not on earth
The rules of the afterlife and what ghosts are able to wander back to earth becomes more complicated Beetlejuice 2. In the 1988 movie, Adam and Barbara Maitland are forced to spend the first 125 years after their deaths in their Winter River home, which they have to try to scare the new Deetz family members out of the house. While teenage Lydia was initially the only one who could see the Maitlands because she was more open to seeing the “Strange and unusual“, the ghosts could not control whether the living could see them or not.
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Therefore, it It is not like Richard’s choice for Astrid and Lydia not to be able to see himDespite this, the two detectives shared the gift of seeing the dead. Still, Richard would need to be “alive” on the plane of the real world for Lydia and Astrid to see his ghost there, but Beetlejuice 2 Reveals that he was stuck in the bureaucracy of the afterlife. Since Richard was a “Free spirit“, he cannot have a place on earth that his ghost is attached to like the Maitlands in Winter River, keeping his spirit in the netherworld.